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(Image courtesy Artists for Humanity)

The new exhibit at Logan International Airport.

By Patrick D. Rosso, Boston.com Staff

As travelers step into Logan International Airport's Terminal E, they will be greeted by art created by high school students from Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, and South Boston. While the art alone is impressive, it’s the story the works seek to tell that will capture the travelers’ attention.

On Thursday the South Boston-based Artists for Humanity unveiled its exhibit, “Capturing the Sun: A Visual Dialogue on Solar Energy.”

The project, a partnership between the non-profit and National Grid, which supplied the three-year grant to support the initiative, seeks to get students, travelers, and artists thinking about the benefits of solar energy and how science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) can be made attractive to young people

“We wanted to add relevance to STEM and how it relates to society,” explained Jason Talbot, the special projects director for Artists for Humanity. “We wanted to see how we could combine creativity and technical skills to foster innovation.”

For the 15 students that contributed the art, the project went beyond the easel and paint brush.

“We sent the kids out to National Grids’ solar site in Dorchester so they could see how it all worked,” said Talbot. “We really wanted to illustrate the scientific principals behind solar energy and what it means to society.”

For the art-based group, stepping into the world of STEM might seem a little unusual, but as Talbot explained, it all goes into to creating better students and citizens.

“For us STEM is an integral part of the art-making process,” Talbot said. “To sculpt you need physics, to paint you need to understand the chemicals in the paint. The better you understand the science behind it, the better artist you will be.”

“Creative problem solving is also a big part of it. STEM shows you how to think outside of the box,” Talbot added.

The exhibit, which includes both paintings and photographs, will add a little bit of color to Logan’s hallways and hopefully get people thinking about where the energy to light up their homes and hotel rooms comes from.

“Teens really are great ambassadors for solar energy,” Talbot said. “They want to clean up the world for themselves and their children and it’s great to see them stepping up and speaking out about such an important subject.”

(Image courtesy Artists for Humanity)

The new exhibit at Logan International Airport.

---Email Patrick D. Rosso, patrick.d.rosso@gmail.com. Follow him @PDRosso, or friend him on Facebook.